The present invention relates generally to solar heating, and in particular to a passive heater located in a floor of a multistory building which can heat the rooms both above and below the floor-mounted heater.
Solar heating of buildings is well known in the prior art. Devices capable of heating air or water by using solar energy are commercially available. The devices can be used to heat a building by blowing the heated air directly into the rooms of the building. Alternatively, they can heat air or water which is directed into a heat storage medium that retains the heat it receives from the air or water. When a heat storage medium is to be heated, the air or water is kept in a closed loop which heats the medium, and the air that actually enters the rooms of the building, the heating air, is itself heated by the heat storage medium. The heating air is heated by being actively forced through the medium before it is conducted into the rooms that it itself heats.
The active system, described above, requires that the air that actually heats the rooms of the building be recycled through the heat storage medium by an energy consuming blower or pump. Further, the active system requires that costly and space-consuming ductwork and registers be placed in the building. Finally, the active system that blows warm air through registers does not actually heat the floors of the building nor does it effectively heat that portion of the room in the vicinity of the floors. Warm floors are, of course, desirable to persons who work, sleep or spend time on or near the floor of the building.
Heating systems utilizing heat storage mediums have, characteristically, had the heat storage medium located in the basement or ground floor. Such a location may be satisfactory in a one-story structure but in a multistory structure, that location necessitates long duct runs between the heat storage medium and the heat source and between the medium and the rooms to be heated. A more convenient location of the medium or one of the mediums, in the second story was traditionally thought to be impractical because it would apparently require a substantial strengthening of walls and floors of the the building to support the heavy heat storage medium.
Thus, there existed a need for a heating apparatus which could be powered by solar energy, which could heat the building passively without using hot air ducts, without registers and without the blowers associated with a forced air system, and which could be situated in a location above the ground or basement, for example, in the second floor of a residential building. Such an apparatus, ideally, should be reliable and be thermally efficient. It should suffer minimal heat losses, should be able to be built with inexpensive materials and labor-saving techniques, yet be strong, safe and capable of sustained use.
The present invention fulfills this need.